In 1998, when two brush fires threatened to become one huge brush fire in Flagler County, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for the entire county. This was the first and so far the only time a whole county was evacuated in Florida.[2] Flagler is also a sports town. Three Flagler baseball teams have made it to the State Tournament in the last 2 years.
Land
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 571 square miles (1,480 km2), of which 485 square miles (1,260 km2) is land and 85 square miles (220 km2) (15.0%) is water.[3]
At the 2020 census, 115,378 people lived in the county. There were 48,450 households and 804 people who did not live in households. The population density was 237.3 people per square mile (91.6/km²). The median age was 54.0 years (52.8 for males, 54.9 for females).
Of the total population, 16.5% were under 18 years old, 51.3% were 18 to 64, and 32.2% were 65 or over. Males made up 48.0% and females made up 52.0% of the people. The population was 73.1% White (non-Latino), 10.7% Hispanic or Latino, 9.1% Black (non-Latino), 2.1% Asian (non-Latino), and 4.1% Two or more races (non-Latino). Less than 1% of the people were from other races.
Of the 48,450 households, 34,022 (70.2%) were families, 10,575 (21.8%) had children under 18, 26,528 (54.8%) had a married couple, and 11,619 (24.0%) had one person living alone. The average household size was 2.4 people. There were 55,565 housing units, and 87.2% had people living in them all year, while 6.6% were for seasonal use (part of the year). Of the households, 78.5% were owner-occupied, while 21.5% were renters.[4][5]
As of 2022, the median (middle) yearly income for a household was about $69,251, and the median income for a family was about $80,702.[6] The per capita income was about $40,463.[7] About 7.0% of families[8] and 9.8% of all people in Flagler County lived below the poverty line. This includes 14.9% of children under 18 years old and 5.8% of people over 65 years old.[9]
Because the demographics of the county are changing quickly, Flagler County is often an unpredictable county in presidential and other elections, although the general trend has been towards the Republican party in recent years.
United States presidential election results for Flagler County, Florida[11]